Her Final Task
by A Better Day1
Summary: Etro is dead. Lightning returns, but as the last L'cie created by Etro. Her focus is set on one thing. Keep the Director of Academia alive. But shall emotions get in the way of her final task? Can the Director be the first one she doesn't fail? (NO LEMONS!) Revising Chapter 2
1. Prologue

_Her Final Task_

_Author: A Better Day1_

**Warnings and Further Clarification: First thing, sorry for the bad summary. This story is rated M due to blood and gore and other awesome things in the future. Hope is 22 and Lightning is 21, Physically. Mentally, she is 1021. And being alive for a while, does cause your hair to grow...**

**Have any other questions, PM me.**

**ENJOY**

* * *

_PROLOGUE_

Goddess Etro wasn't happy, and Lightning knew she was the cause. She kneels toward Etro's throne. "Etro, your highness." Lightning greets. She soon gets this sharp pain in her heart. It felt as if someone plunged a knife inside her.

_'You have failed me, champion.' _ The thousand voices of Etro play in Lightning's head. "But_..._ but how?" Lightning manages to get out through her excruciating pain. _'You've allowed me to get killed.'_

**_No. No, she can't be..._**

_'You swore that you would protect me for eternity. You have went back on your word.' _"Etro I-"

_'SILENCE CHILD!' _Etro's voice booms in Lightning's head. _'You have committed a vial sin. Therefore, you shall be punished.' _A cold soothing feeling pools on Lightning's limbs. She looks down and sees a light blue solid crawl up her legs.

Crystal.

She tries to stand but the crystal holds her put. "Your highness, please!" Lightning pleads as a crystallized tear falls from her eyes. _'Dare not plead __for forgiveness as the sin you created cannot be ignored. You shall suffer as I suffer!" _A deeper pain strikes Lightning's heart. She cries out from the agony. Lightning squeezes her eyes shut and clenches her teeth. The crystal has now reached Lightning's chest, leaving her in a rather dramatic position. She kneels on the ground with her hand clutching her chest as the other one reaches out for Etro.

_'Pathetic child. You reach out for me, as if you wanted me to save you. Reminds me of your sister. She too was in this similar position, waiting for you to save her. How many will you fail?'_

Lightning is now smothered in crystal, but is still conscious to hear one last thing

_'Shall this crystal protect everyone from your sins.'_

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	2. CHAPTER 1: FOCUS

CHAPTER ONE: FOCUS

Everything was like a fast blurry slideshow. It was hard for Lightning to make it all out, but the details were clear enough. She saw herself following this silver haired man titled "Director" who smelled really nice but she couldn't name his natural scent. Lightning came to his defense when anybody showed any sort of physical contact toward him from a wrist grab to more. Director also held her around the waist, a lot. Lightning even saw herself killing for his safety... such as the bald man whose throat she leisurely slit as if Lightning was trying to savor his agonizing cries, the crimson blood that squirted on her face, the crunching sound of his neck being sawed through.

Light.

Light was the nickname Director had permanently given her. It was like a birth name.

He never called her Lightning.

At one time, they were in some sort of office. _Director's_ office, Lightning had figured. She couldn't hear anything until the end, but they were talking about something serious showing from Lightning's liquid rimmed eyes. She had wrapped her arms around his torso from behind and rested her head on his back then stated,"I'm not giving up on you. I'll protect you with my life.

...

She was drooling a metallic flavor and was laying in a puddle of it too. Lightning opens her aching lids as she pushes herself off the tile flooring. "What the hell just- Oh shit, she's awake. We woke her up!" Shouted an excited man. The words echoed in Lightning's empty mind.

She grabbed her blood soaked gun blade lying in the red puddle. But her blade was different. It was a slightly brass color. It was wide, two and a half feet long with quotes engraved in Pulsian along the sides and ended with cruel point. Lightning looked at her reflection on her blade.

Her hair was messy with visible tangles and her hair had grown pass her breast. Her face was marked with drying blood running along her sharp features. Lightning had nothing on but undergarments and her holster. Her body was covered with the warm sticky blood from inside her. She snapped her head up from the sound of a creaky door opening. "Ma'am, are you okay?" Asked a man with short tangerine colored hair, grey eyes, fair skin, he had an average build, was slightly taller than Lightning, and in his mid twenties ask staring at her attentively. And you couldn't miss that Pulsian accent. She just stared him down for a few seconds before slamming him against the wall with her blade pressed against his throat.

"Where the hell am I?" Lightning growled through closed teeth. The man just stares at her under her grasp. "I asked you a question. Answer it."

"Academy Research Institute." She pressed the blade harder to where his throat was turning red. "You're a scientist. Why are you here alone then? Don't you lackeys work together?"

The man starts to sweat under the pressure of her grasp. "I was told by the Director to watch over you in case you woke up."

Everything filled Lightning's desolate mind. Every thought, every feeling, every memory, it was all clear as day. The Purge train, her being a L'cie, her friends and sister, everything to her falling into the abyss of Valhalla.

Etro.

She'd failed Goddess Etro. As punishment, she was turned into crystal top keep everybody from her sins. Lightning dreamed about a silver haired man she followed around and protected. He went by the name of "Director"- ** _'Director? He just... he just said his name.'_** Lightning releases the man and wipes her blood covered chest with the back of her hand. There it was.

There lied the L'cie brand embedded upon her chest.

The man, seeing Lightning in a shocked daze, slams her into the wall and sprays this repulsive smelling spray in her two nostrils. Lightning began to grow tired and weak by the minute as she slipped to the ground. "I'm sorry, you'll wake soon." The man assured her. Lightning takes one last glare at the man before slipping out of consciousness.

...

She was lying on what felt like comfortable bed rails. Lightning had been sleep with her eyes open. She blinks several times to moisten them before taking on her surroundings. She was in a office of some sort. Lightning pushes herself off the ground to her feet. Beside her was a brown leather couch. **_'Hmm, must've fallen off.'_** She looked down at herself. Lightning wasn't covered in blood anymore. In fact, she was still in undergarments but they've been changed from white tip black. The thought of that little punk from earlier changing her underwear made her cringe.

Beside the white metal door was her gun blade leaning against the wall beside a simple pull out chair holding clothes, a small ring box, and a neatly written note. Lightning strolls over to the chair and grabs the note.

_Clothes for you to Change __in when you wake up._

_Director told me to leave them out._

_-Jordis_

A faint glow grew from Lightning's brand as she came to realization.**_ 'He's here. Director's here.'_ ** Her hand covered the brand. "Director is my focus. My duty it's to protect him, keep him alive." Lightning said aloud. She quickly threw on the clothing. Lightning was glad to know that the clothes were her old Guardian Corps uniform. She opened the minuscule blue box. It was a silver belly piercing. Lightning was surprised. Who could've possibly noticed it? But one question bothered her.

**_'How would Director know?'_ **She thought as she put the piercing in her flesh. Lightning grabs her blade and exits the room.

A voice alerts her right ear as Lightning steps in the wide hallway.

"Hey. See you woke up, Sleeping Beauty." It was that little prick she encountered with. "You were out for hours. I'm sorry I had to put you out like that. And as the Director had yapped about you and your combat skills, I didn't think I'd get one on you though." She had enough of his mouth. She pulls her blade out (Gun form) and aims it at his head.

"This again? Come on Lightning, I'm not the enemy here." The man reasons with his hand up as he slowly walks away. Lightning smirked with a hum as she flipped the safety off her gun. "I wake up lying in my own blood without clothes in a weird room were some punk sprays so sleepy crap in my nose to save his ass, and you expect me to trust you?" Lightning takes a step forward so her blade is inches from the bridge of his nose.

"Then let's gain some trust within each other. Let's start with the basic stuff. My name is Candor Vann Jordis. A.K.A. Jordis. I'm 26 and I'm researcher. Questions?" Lightning has this internal struggle between lowering her guard. She decides to switch it back to its blade form and hold it at her side. "Yes. Who is Director and does he know me?" Jordis's lips curve into a small grin. "You'll know when you see him. You'll definitely know."

_**'Of course I'll know, he's my final task. But I can't protect him without him.' **_

Irritated by the answer, Lightning aims her gun at Jordis's left eye. "Take me to him. Now." Lightning demands. "I'm not allowed to give up Director's location." She smirks. "I don't mind pulling this trigger. I don't have anything to live for. You seem like the type of guy who would do anything to save his skin, so I suggest you start walking."

He grinds his teeth in frustration before motioning for Lightning to follow him. With her weapon aimed at his head, they walk down the huge hallway. He pushes the door open to this rather messy work area with blueprints and tools scattered all over the place. Jordis points to a white door on the right side of the room. "He's in there, I think." He begins to leave but Lightning shoots the ground his foot was centimeters from. "I didn't say you could leave. Take me in there." His shaking breath and nervous sweat beads on his forehead made Lightning smirk.

He holds the door open as she walks in.

There was a small desk with a cup of pencils, books, and blueprints. Her eye twitches at the poor state of the leather chair. In the room there were two full bookcases and a white couch. Her eyes start to rim with tears.

_**"I'm in his office." **_

"Where is he?" Lightning asks through closed teeth without looking at him. "I don't know. I thought he was going to be here. Director is-"

"You think this is some sick game? Huh? I'm sick of playing it." She shoots him in the neck. "... You... you shot me." Jordis slurs as he pulls out the blue feathered syringe. "It's called a tranquilizer. You won't wake soon." Lightning says with a smirk. She slams the door as she struts out. Lightning stares at her blade.

"What did I do?" A young girl's laugh echos through the room that was now pitch black, but Lightning could still see herself. "What do you think? You shot the dude with a tranquilizer and past out. And you just left him there." The voice says to optimistically for Lightning's taste. The sound of clacking boots come from behind her. Lightning turns her head as she aims her gun at the girl's now shown figure. She wore a black dress with same color matching ankle boots, thigh high socks, choker, and gloves. She had a weird mix between olive and fair skin tone, black eyes with no white in them, and black hair tied in a sock bun with bangs stopping just above her eyes.

"Your not so clever, are you?"

"Who are you?" The girl taps her chin as she circles Lightning. "Hmm, good question. Uh, E. Just call me E."

_**'E? That's a weird name.' **_

"Weirder than "Lightning"? Huh, you wish. What type of name is Lightning anyway? Something Mother Farron came up with at the last minute?" Lightning's eyes go wide in shock as her fingertips graze her temple. "How... how did you-"

"Do I have to explain everything? Fine, I can hear your thoughts. As a matter of fact, I can hear things in your mind that you don't. And since we're on the topic, I can make you see things." E grabs her painfully by the chin. "I don't like you, and I won't stop trying to hurt you. Shall I demonstrate?" E's grip on Lightning's chin becomes tighter as her full black ones bore into the cerulean pair. Lightning's eyes snap shut as horrific images explode in her mind. She saw different deaths of her parents. Each time was more brutal and gory. Serah was beaten to death by Snow, impaled, and ripped in half by a behemoth.

Snow had the worst deaths.

PSICOM hung him for trying to stop people from getting purged, NORA betrayed him, and Lightning even decapitated him. She dropped to her knees as the thoughts drove her to madness. She'd failed each one of them. Allowed them to die.

It wouldn't stop. Images kept flowing.

The last of their screams were fading away as she was enveloped in warmth.

"Come on, it's okay. I'm here. None of it is real." A warm voice soothed Lightning as her mind was becoming rid of the torture. She was being rocked in someone's arms as they attempted to calm her down. She removes her shaking hands away from her ears as she slowly opens her eyes. She was welcomed by emerald eyes and silver hair.

The silver hair and emerald eyes.

Her hands move up to rest on his cheek. "Director? Your here?" He gives her a bright grin. "It's me. Hope." _**'Hope? But he's so... big.'**_Lightning pulls him into a tight embrace. "It's nice to have you back, Light."

_**'Hope. My charge, my responsibility.'**_

_**'I will not fail you.'**_


End file.
